I know that Bielema was not much of a Madison type. But neither is Alvarez. Bielema didn't go to UW, I know, but he was Alvarez's guy. The hand-picked, personally-groomed heir. And as far as I know, the money guys behind the program (the Kellners, et al) were all very satisfied with Alvarez/Bielema.

This is huge, because I wonder how long Alvarez wants to stick around. Does he want to do a coaching search? Is a new coach hampered by the fact that Alvarez might hire him and then soon after be gone? (See, e.g., Martin, Bill / Rodriguez, Rich)

I'll admit, its somewhat hearsay. The best I can say is I have a lot of family and friends who went to Wisconsin, and I grew up with them tied with michigan as my team. Ever since the TCU loss people havn't been satisfied (there was some suspect play calling at the end of that game). Then there was a sense that last years team was their shot, and that didn't even work out as they hoped (again, suspect play calling like trying for the win against MSU, which gave them the ball back to get the hail mary). Remeber too, this year he lost a lot of his staff (i can't recall who off the top of my head, sorry) then fired his OL coach during the season. There was a sense that the ship was sinking, if not this year, then soon. Also, with Ball leaving, and no transfer QB in sight, they were not going to imrove next year.

I'm still pretty shocked, but things were definetly not warm and cozy in madison anymore, and they were headed the wrong direction.

I grew up a Wisco fan, and I have a lot of family and friends from Wisconsin. His popularity was actually very low by the end of this season. Had he not pulled that Nebraska victory out of nowhere, my money was on him being gone anyways. Ever since the TCU rose bowl people have been getting frustraited.

Arkansas is tossing around $5 million a year offers to coaches like Les Miles. Bielema made $2.5 million at Wiscy. If Bielema does sign for this much, though, I will be surprised that Arkansas didn't find more for their money.

Amazing how on the day Brian writes in Unverified Voracity about underwhelming coaching hires, one of the league's best coaches gets poached by the SEC. That just says everything you need to know about the league.

my thoughts exactly.. I would love for a big name like Petrino to take the job for the sake of Big Ten competition. It would be nice to establish a reputation for stealing head coaches away from the SEC, maybe eventually steal some of their players. Crist was the first name that came to mind though. Love/hate this time of year

That's really all I can do is just laugh at this. Bielema comes off as a scumbag, and really has proven it today. Arkansas must be very desperate to hire a coach with 5 losses this year. I hope he fails miserably down in the S-E-C.

It's time for the Big Ten to start doing what it did in basketball and start hiring some good coaches. Hopefully Wisconsin can hire Petersen or Patterson and doesn't go after some MAC guy or something.

do you not? So did the late Randy Walker and Brian Kelly. 4 of the top 10 coaches in American coached in the MAC. MACTION might get scorned on here, but it is quality football for what the schools have to work with.